Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Personality and Individual Differences journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/paid Do personality traits and personal values predict career efficacy and career progression of successful political women? An exploratory study Donata Francescato a,1, ⁎ , Marco Lauriola b , Mauro Giacomantonio b , Minou Ella Mebane c a Department of Dynamic and Clinical Psychology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy b Department of Social and Developmental Psychology, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, Italy c Social Psychology, University Giustino Fortunato, Benevento, Italy ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Big Five Personal Values Political Participation Self-efficacy Career Progression ABSTRACT Women constitute slightly more than half of the world population, yet they represent just 24 % of all the legislators in parliaments in all the world. Personality theorists have suggested that in this era of personalization of politics dispositional characteristics of politicians may contribute to political success. We need more empirical studies which explore whether some dispositional variables favor women’s political career progression and ef- ficacy. The main aim of our research was to examine the extent to which the five factors of personality and the personal values account for political career self-efficacy beliefs and career progression, among women elected at the Italian National parliament. A tied comparison of traits and values revealed that personality traits “trumped” personal values in the prediction of political career efficacy. Our results indicate that extraversion was the best predictor of perceived efficacy beliefs. Conservation and extraversion were the main predictors of women’s career progression. Our findings attest, moreover, that the relationship of extraversion and conservation with career progression was partially accounted by the empowerment efficacy dimension of career efficacy. 1. Introduction Women constitute slightly more than half of the world population, yet their presence in formal political structures remains low. Several studies from various theoretical viewpoints have tried to understand which factors promote or undermine women's political career (Stevens, 2007). To counterbalance negative stereotypes about women as political leaders, women politicians need to have a high sense of empowerment. The empowerment of women and the improvement of their political, social, economic, and health status is highly important. In fact, according to both Holzner, Neuhold, and Weiss-Gänger (2010), and Page and Czuba (1999), the empowerment of women fosters a sense of power within women that allows them to believe to be both worthy and capable of pursuing their aspirations. More studies are needed to find out what role feelings of personal empowerment may play in helping women politicians to pursue their goals without being restrained by gender stereotypes so diffused in our society and espe- cially in political settings where male dominance was the norm. Personality theorists have suggested that in this era of personali- zation of politics, individual differences may contribute to political success (Best, 2011; Caprara & Vecchione, 2017). We are not aware, however, of empirical studies that have explored the relation of per- sonality traits, personal values, career efficacy, and career progression in politics. This gap could be due at least in part to the lower accessi- bility of politicians and the difficulties with gathering personality data from them. 1.1. Personality traits and career efficacy According to the Social Cognitive Model of Career Self- Management, personality factors are relevant to adaptive career beha- viors (Lent & Brown, 2013). Several studies investigated the relation- ship between Big Five and career self-efficacy (Nauta, 2004; Hartman & Betz, 2007). In particular, Nauta (2004) showed that openness to ex- perience was associated with different dimensions of career self-effi- cacy. Hartman & Betz (2007) showed that conscientiousness and ex- traversion were the most robust positive predictors of nearly all forms of career self-efficacy, while neuroticism displayed significant negative relationships. Recent studies on career efficacy have also shown that career self-efficacy mediated the influence of personality traits on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2020.109918 Received 6 December 2019; Received in revised form 5 February 2020; Accepted 11 February 2020 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail address: mc0938@mclink.it (D. Francescato). 1 Currently the Scientific Director of the post-graduate School of Specialization in clinical community psychology and psychotherapy at ASPIC (Associazione per lo Sviluppo Psicologico dell'Individuo e della Comunità, Association for the Psychological Development of the Individual and the Community). Personality and Individual Differences 160 (2020) 109918 0191-8869/ © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. T